Pages

Sunday, July 27, 2014

I was charmed the other day by a 1915 vintage, almost
Victorian looking, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes advertisement poster I spotted amongst
the old-fashioned-decor adorned on the walls at a local Cracker Barrel diner. While
staring at the ad, for some reason, I became curious as to the origin of Corn
Flakes. Where were they invented, and how did they come about? I previously had
a stereotypical notion that they may have originated in farming communities, due
to the rooster, Cornelius, usually observed on the boxes. After ordering
pancakes (not the multigrain or wheat ones but the regular pancakes), I googled
“Kellogg’s Corn Flakes history” on my phone, and the results were a little startling.

It appears the invention that brought about Corn Flakes was discovered by
accident in 1894, at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan by health reformist
Dr.John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg as part of a bland diet to keep the patients
from having increased passions, i.e. to keep them from masturbating.

One day, the
Kellogg brothers left a batch of cooked wheat out to sit, when they were
diverted by urgent matters at the sanitarium. Upon their return, they’d found
that the wheat had gone stale, but because they were under a strict budget, they
decided to salvage the wheat. After pressing the wheat through rollers, it
formed, to their surprise, wheat flakes that were subsequently toasted and served
to the patients; it ended up being a hit. Later Will Keith Kellogg experimented with flaking corn, which he eventually
made into a successful business.

Dr. John
Harvey Kellogg was a pioneer surgeon, who succeeded in having exceptionally
low mortality rates with his surgery practice. He was the superintendent of the
Battle Creek Sanitarium and pioneered numerous health reform treatments, some
of which still hold up today. However, the good doctor sometimes missed the
mark.

Friday, July 11, 2014

“Genre rules” seem to be most common in zombie and
vampire films, and it’s with these particular genres that breaking the “rules”
ends up being the most controversial. Yet, these so called rules are
non-existent, and filmmakers can do whatever they want. Of course, the big risk
with breaking too many rules is that so many people will already hate the movie
before/without even bothering to see it. On the other hand, sticking with the
rules and relying too heavily on clichés is too easy and contributes to
oversaturation of a genre. I personally enjoy the best of both worlds, classic
and innovative, the best of the old with the best of the new. Give me what I
came for, but surprise me too. Clichés are important but more for the sake of
maintaining a basis of familiarity.

Harry
Kümel’s emblematic, chic, and sensual vampire seduction Daughters of Darkness falls somewhere
in the middle ground between familiar and different. It probably isn’t even
worth mentioning the many parallels between this movie and The Blood Spattered Bride or The
Shiver of the Vampires, other than to note they were made around the same
time and manage to be so different from one another, even though they tell
similar stories. They all contain a common sapphic vampire story that owes a
lot to Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Carmilla, which was adapted a year
earlier with The Vampire Lovers in
1970 and ten years before that with Blood
and Roses.